Method and system for providing household budget book services using mobile terminals

ABSTRACT

A household budget book service system using mobile terminals is disclosed. The household budget book service system includes a master mobile terminal having budget book indexes for inputting a user&#39;s expenditures, capable of storing and sending any inputted expenditures, and receiving expenditures inputted in mobile terminals of the user&#39;s other family members that have been registered for integrated management of overall household expenditures, a budget book management server for receiving the expenditures inputted in the master mobile terminal and those inputted in each other family member&#39;s mobile terminal to control the operation of the master mobile terminal and capable of communicating with any card company&#39;s server and any bank&#39;s server, and a storing section connected to the budget book management server to store information sent from each mobile terminal according to the budget book indexes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates generally to a system for providinghousehold budget book services, and more particularly, to a method and asystem for providing household budget book services using mobileterminals.

[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0004] A household budget book is a family's regular record of incomesand expenditures. This book shows the family's management of householdexpenses and financial conditions.

[0005] For good account-keeping, people need be sufficientlyconscientious and pay particular attention to put down all amounts ofmoney received or paid out everyday.

[0006] Actually, it is difficult to enter every paid amount at once in ahousehold budget book. People generally remember or take notes of anyamounts of money spent during a day and enter those amounts in thebudget book later in the day.

[0007] Since it takes a great deal of effort and some time to keepaccounts everyday, most people give up account-keeping or fail tocontinuously manage their household accounts for a long time.

[0008] With the rapid development of computer and telecommunicationtechnologies and the explosive increase in the number of Internet users,services provided on the Internet are also greatly increasing.

[0009] On-line services available through the Internet includee-commerce, such as purchases at Internet shopping malls that enableusers to purchase goods with reduced time and effort and Internetbanking services that eliminate the need to visit banks.

[0010] Most on-line service providers send a purchase statement to eachpurchaser's e-mail address or mobile phone. Also, on-line shopping mallsassign pages for registered members on their Web sites to enable them tocheck the items purchased.

[0011] In order to confirm all the amounts paid for e-commerce, usersshould access every related shopping mall site, credit card company'sserver and bank's server. Accordingly, the users may feel it istroublesome and time-consuming to enter such amounts in a householdbudget book.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0012] The present invention substantially obviates one or more problemsarising from limitations and disadvantages of the related art.

[0013] It is an object of the present invention to provide a handheldmobile terminal with a household budget book function for enteringincomes, expenditures and e-commerce transactions and implement thebudget book function in communication with various card companies'servers and Internet banking servers.

[0014] It is another object of the present invention to provide a systemand a method for providing household budget book services using aplurality of mobile terminals, one of which is set as a master capableof integrated management of incomes, expenditures and e-commercetransactions inputted in the other mobile terminals which are set asslaves.

[0015] In order to accomplish the above objects and other advantages inaccordance with the present invention, as embodied and broadly describedherein, there is provided a system for providing household budget bookservices using mobile terminals, which comprises: a master mobileterminal having budget book indexes for inputting a user's expenditures,capable of storing and sending any inputted expenditures, and receivingexpenditures inputted in mobile terminals of the user's other familymembers that have been registered for integrated management of overallhousehold expenditures; a budget book management server for receivingthe expenditures inputted in the master mobile terminal and thoseinputted in each other family member's mobile terminal to control theoperation of the master mobile terminal and capable of communicatingwith any card company's server and any bank's server; and a storingsection connected to the budget book management server to storeinformation sent from each mobile terminal according to the budget bookindexes.

[0016] Preferably, said master mobile terminal should have a function toadd up all amounts of expenditures incurred by the user and the otherfamily members immediately when inputted.

[0017] According to another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method for controlling a household budget book service systemusing mobile terminals, which comprises the steps of: when a user inputsexpenditures according to budget book indexes provided in a mastermobile terminal, generating budget boot data in a predetermined area ofthe mobile terminal; sending the generated data to a correspondingbudget book management server; updating, budget book data stored in thebudget book management server based on the received data; and wheninformation about additional expenditures is inputted from any ofregistered mobile terminals of the user's other family members, any cardcompany or any bank, updating the budget book data again and storing theupdated data in the master mobile terminal.

[0018] Preferably, said step of generating budget book data shouldcomprise: selecting an item of expenditure incurred by the user from thebudget book indexes provided in the mobile terminal and inputting anamount of expenditure; and generating data including current time, userand place of the expenditure and storing the generated data in apreviously established database.

[0019] More preferably, said budget book indexes provided in the mobileterminal correspond to items of all possible household expenses forfood, education, maintenance, credit card transactions, culture,savings, etc.

[0020] More preferably, said step of sending the generated budget bookdata to the management server should comprise: displaying the generateddata in a display window of the mobile terminal; and sending the data tothe management server.

[0021] More preferably, said step of storing the data in the mastermobile terminal should comprise: updating the data sent to the budgetbook management server; sending the updated data to the registeredmobile terminals of the other family members; when payment informationis inputted from any card company or bank, updating the budget book dataagain; and downloading the updated data upon the user's demand andstoring the same in the user's master mobile terminal.

[0022] Additional advantages, objects, and features of the inventionwill be set forth in part in the description which follows and in partwill become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art uponexamination of the following or may be learned by practicing theinvention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may berealized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in thewritten description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0023] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide afurther understanding of the invention and are incorporated in andconstitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of theinvention and together with the description serve to explain theprinciple of the invention. In the drawings:

[0024]FIG. 1 is a view showing the structure of a system for providinghousehold budget book services using mobile terminals according to thepresent invention; and

[0025]FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a process of providing householdbudget book services using mobile terminals according to the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0026] Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodimentof the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numberswill be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

[0027]FIG. 1 is a view showing the structure of a system for providinghousehold budget book services using mobile terminals according to thepresent invention. FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a process ofcontrolling the same system.

[0028] Referring to FIG. 1, a plurality of mobile terminals 100, e.g.,first to fourth mobile terminals 101 to 104, store amounts of moneyreceived or paid by corresponding users in their memories (not shown)and display the stored data upon demand by the users. The mobileterminals 100 receive data on the users' e-commerce transactions, suchas credit card transactions, and financial transactions from a budgetbook management server 500 and store the data in their memories todisplay the data upon demand by the users. Also, the mobile terminals100 provide the budget book management server 500 with data on theincomes (or deposits) or expenditures as inputted by each user so thatthey can interwork with a household budget book software on the Webthrough the budget book management server 500. It is possible to set oneof the mobile terminals 100 as a master and the others as slaves. Insuch a case, the slave mobile terminals should send data on the incomesand expenditures as inputted by their users both to the budget bookmanagement server 500 and to the master mobile terminal so that theincomes, expenditures and e-commerce transactions of the users of theslave mobile terminals can be managed by the master mobile terminal. Forexample, if a mother's or father's mobile terminal is set as a master ina family and children's mobile terminals are set as slaves, the motheror father can manage the amounts of money received (or deposited) andpaid by the children. The mobile terminals 100 provide a variety ofbudget book indexes to facilitate the input by the users. The indexesmay include items of all possible household incomes and expenditures forfood, education, maintenance, etc.

[0029] The budget book management server 500 has a database 600 thatassigns respective database areas for the plurality of mobile terminals100 and stores the incomes, expenditures or e-commerce data receivedfrom the mobile terminals 100 in the corresponding database areas. Thebudget book management server 500 receives information about credit cardtransactions conducted by the users of the mobile terminals 100 from arelevant card company's server and stores the information in thedatabase areas assigned for the corresponding users' mobile terminals.At the same time, the budget book management server 500 sends the sameinformation to the corresponding mobile terminals. The budget bookmanagement server 500 receives information about Internet bankingservices used by the users of the mobile terminals from an Internetbanking server and stores the information in the database areas assignedfor the corresponding users' mobile terminals. At the same time, thebudget book management server 500 sends the same information to thecorresponding mobile terminals. In addition, the budget book managementserver 500 sends data stored in the respective database areas to thecorresponding mobile terminals or only to a master of the mobileterminals.

[0030] The budget book management server 500 can make the data stored inthe respective database areas available on the Web. Also, the budgetbook management server 500 modifies or updates the data when demanded bya user who has accessed through the Web or the master mobile terminal.

[0031] The operation of the household budget book service system usingmobile terminals will be explained in more detail.

[0032] The mobile terminals 100 used by a plurality of family memberscan be a mother's first mobile terminal 101, a father's second mobileterminal 102 and children's third and fourth mobile terminals 103 and104.

[0033] It is possible to set the mother's mobile terminal 101 as amaster and the other family members' mobile terminals 102 to 104 asslaves.

[0034] The mother using the master mobile terminal 101 can receive dataon incomes, expenditures or e-commerce transactions in real time wheninputted in the second to fourth mobile terminals 102 to 104 through thebudget book management server 500 for the integrated householdmanagement. Such data on incomes, expenditures or e-commercetransactions can be directly received or transmitted between thefamily's mobile terminals.

[0035] Alternatively, the first mobile terminal 101 can download thedata on incomes, expenditures or e-commerce transactions inputted in thesecond to fourth mobile terminals 102 to 104 from the budget bookmanagement server 500.

[0036] The first mobile terminal 101 can receive or download the data onincomes, expenditures or e-commerce transactions from the budget bookmanagement server 500 because data on the family's expenditures inputtedin all the mobile terminals 101 to 104 and data transmitted from a cardcompany 200 or a bank 300 on the family's credit-card transactions areall collected and managed by the budget book management server 500.

[0037] As a master, the first mobile terminal 101 can download such datafrom the budget book management server 500 and update the data wheneverneeded. If all the family's mobile terminals have been registered forintegrated management, the first mobile terminal 101 can directlycollect and manage the data inputted in the mobile terminals 102 to 104,without the need to download the data from the budget book managementserver 500.

[0038] For example, if the mother paid 57,000 won to buy some food, shecan select the item “food” from the budget book indexes provided in thefirst mobile terminal 101 and input the amount of 57,000 won. Theindexes may include items of all possible household incomes and expensesfor food, education, maintenance, etc.

[0039] The first mobile terminal 101 stores information about when andby whom the expenditure in the amount of 57,000 won was incurred in aform of “03/04/23_(—)16:43 Mom buying food” in its embedded memory (notshown). At the same time, the first mobile terminal 101 sends the sameinformation to the budget book management server 500. Upon receiving theinformation, the budget book management server 500 updates the totalamount of expenditures inputted from the first mobile terminal andstores the updated data in the corresponding database area of thestoring section 600.

[0040] Also, the budget book management server 500 receives data onexpenditures inputted in the second to fourth mobile terminals 102 to104 and data transmitted from the card company 200 or the bank 300 oncredit-card transactions or financial transactions, and stores both datain the corresponding database areas assigned for the respective mobileterminals. After updating the total amount of the family's overallexpenditures, the budget book management server 500 sends the updateddata to the first mobile terminal 101.

[0041] Accordingly, if one or more of the second to fourth mobileterminals 102 to 104 is registered for the integrated householdmanagement, every amount of expenditure inputted in the registeredmobile terminals will be informed to the first mobile terminal 101 andadded up immediately. For the expenditures incurred by the user of anon-registered mobile terminal, the first mobile terminal 101 canreceive and manage the expenditure data through the budget bookmanagement server 500. Updated data on the family's expenditures can betransmitted to all of the first to fourth mobile terminals 101 to 104.

[0042] In case of a credit card transaction, the card company 200 sendsits approval of the use of a credit card to the corresponding user'smobile terminal and at the same time to die master first mobile terminal101, thereby enabling the integrated management by the first mobileterminal 101.

[0043] Also, if each family member's bank account information has beenpreviously inputted, paying-in or paying-out from any account will beimmediately reflected as an income or expenditure.

[0044] Hereinafter, a process of controlling the budget book servicesystem using mobile terminals according to the present invention will beexplained in detail with reference to FIG. 2. A user who wishes to inputany expenditure can have his or her mobile terminal to display thestored budget book indexes (S11 and S12).

[0045] The user can select an item corresponding to the expenditure fromthe displayed indexes and input the amount of expenditure in the mobileterminal (S13).

[0046] The mobile terminal generates data concerning the expendituretime and the user, and displays the data in its display window (S14 andS15).

[0047] Subsequently, the mobile terminal determines whether the user hasinputted an OK key (S16).

[0048] If it is determined that the OK key has not been inputted (S16),the mobile terminal will then determine whether any other family memberof the user has incurred expenditure (S17).

[0049] If no expenditure has been incurred by the other family members(S17), the mobile terminal will return to the previous step S16. If anyexpenditure has been incurred, the mobile terminal will add the amountof the current expenditure to the previously stored amount and willreturn to step S18.

[0050] If the user has inputted the OK key (S16), the generated datawill be stored in both the user's mobile terminal and a mobile terminalthat has been set as a master or a server, and will be sent to thebudget book management server 500 (S19).

[0051] The budget book management server 500 updates the stored databased on the newly inputted data (S20).

[0052] Also, the budget book management server sends the updated data toall family members' mobile terminals that are connected to the budgetbook management server (S21).

[0053] It is also determined whether there is any credit cardtransaction or any change in a bank account due to deposit or withdrawal(S22).

[0054] If there is (S22), data on the credit card transaction or theaccount change will be sent to the corresponding, user's mobileterminal, master mobile terminal and budget book management server(S23).

[0055] The budget book management server updates the stored data basedon the newly received data and sends the updated data to all the familymembers' mobile terminals (S24).

[0056] Any user can access the budget book management server to searchfor or download the integrated data of the family's budget book (S25 andS26).

[0057] As described above, the budget book service system using handheldmobile terminals and the method of controlling the system according tothe present invention provide the mobile terminals with a budget bookfunction. If one of the family members' mobile terminals is set as amaster and the other mobile terminals are registered for the integratedhousehold management, all amounts of expenses incurred by each familymember can be immediately added up and managed by the master mobileterminal. The expenditure data will also be sent to the budget bookmanagement server. Since the budget book management server also receivesincome and expenditure data of a family member having a non-registeredmobile terminal, it can integratedly manage the overall householdaccounts of the family.

[0058] The budget book service system and the method for controlling thesystem according to the present invention have the following advantagesand effects.

[0059] First of all, every time any money is spent, a user can easilyenter the amount of money at once on his or her handheld mobile terminalwith less inputs. Also, any credit-card transaction or any change in abank account due to deposit or withdrawal is immediately informed to amaster mobile terminal for the easy, integrated management of householdaccounts.

[0060] Secondarily, if one of a family's mobile terminals is set andregistered as a master, expenditures as inputted in the family members'mobile terminals other than the master will be informed immediately tothe master for the efficient, integrated management of the householdaccounts.

[0061] Thirdly, a budget book management server, as well as the mastermobile terminal, can manage the family's household accounts, and thuseach user can search for or download the family's budget book data atany time and any place with improved convenience.

[0062] The forgoing embodiments are merely exemplary and are not to beconstrued as limiting the present invention. The present teachings canbe readily applied to other types of apparatuses. The description of thepresent invention is intended to be illustrative, and not to limit thescope of the claims. Many alternatives, modifications, and variationswill be apparent to those skilled in the art.

1. A method for providing household budget book services using mobileterminals with a budget book function, comprising the steps of:receiving data on e-commerce transactions conducted by a user from ane-commerce service server and registering the data in a database areaassigned for the user; and sending the registered data to the user'smobile terminal.
 2. A method for providing household budget bookservices using mobile terminals, comprising the steps of: receiving dataon credit-card transactions conducted by a user from a card company'sserver and registering the data in a database area assigned for theuser; and sending the registered data to the user's mobile terminal. 3.A method for providing household budget book services using mobileterminals, comprising the steps of: receiving data on financialtransactions in a user's bank account from a bank's server andregistering the data in a database area assigned for the user; andsending the registered data to the user's mobile terminal.
 4. A methodfor providing household budget book services using mobile terminals,comprising the steps of: storing data on incomes or expendituresinputted by a user in the user's mobile terminal and sending the storeddata to a budget book management server; and registering the data in adatabase area assigned for the user.
 5. The method according to any ofclaims 1 to 4 claim 1, further comprising the step of displaying thedata sent or inputted to the mobile terminal to be checked by the user.6. The method according to any of claims 1 to 4 claim 1, furthercomprising the step of enabling the user to search for the dataregistered in the database area on the Web.
 7. The method according toany of claims 1 to 4 claim 1, further comprising the step of downloadingthe data registered in the database area to the user's mobile terminalupon the user's demand.
 8. The method according to any of claims 1 to 4claim 1, further comprising the steps of: setting one of a plurality ofmobile terminals as a master and the others as slaves; and sending dataregistered for the mobile terminals set as slaves to the master.
 9. Themethod according to any of claims 1 to 4 claim 1, further comprising thesteps of: setting one of a plurality of mobile terminals with a budgetbook function as a master and the others as slaves; and downloading dataregistered for the mobile terminals set as slaves to the master.
 10. Themethod according to claim 4, further comprising the steps of: settingone of a plurality of mobile terminals with a budget book function as amaster and the others as slaves; and sending data on incomes orexpenditures of each user of the slave mobile terminals directly to themaster.
 11. The method according to claim 4, wherein said user's mobileterminal is provided with budget book indexes which facilitate theuser's input.
 12. A system for providing household budget book servicesusing mobile terminals with a budget book function, comprising: ane-commerce service server for sending data on e-commerce transactionsconducted by a user; a budget book management server for receiving thedata on e-commerce transactions and registering the data in a databasearea assigned for the user; and a mobile terminal for receiving theregistered data on e-commerce transactions from the budget bookmanagement server and enabling the user to search for the data.
 13. Asystem for providing household budget book services using mobileterminals with a budget book function, comprising: a card company'sserver for sending data on credit-card transactions conducted by a user;a budget book management server for receiving the data on credit-cardtransactions and registering the data in a database area assigned forthe user; and a mobile terminal for receiving the registered data oncredit-card transactions from the budget book management server andenabling the user to search for the data.
 14. A system for providinghousehold budget book services using mobile terminals with a budget bookfunction, comprising: a bank's server for sending data on financialtransactions in a user's bank account; a budget book management serverfor receiving the data on financial transactions and registering thedata in a database area assigned for the user; and a mobile terminal forreceiving the registered data on financial transactions from the budgetbook management server and enabling the user to search for the data. 15.A system for providing household budget book services using mobileterminals with a budget book function, comprising: a plurality of mobileterminals for storing data on incomes or expenditures inputted by eachuser; and a budget book management server for registering the data onincomes or expenditures in a database area assigned for each user. 16.The system according to any of claims 12 to 15 claim 12, wherein saidplurality of mobile terminals display the received or inputted data tobe checked by each user.
 17. The system according to any of claims 12 to15 claim 12, wherein said budget book management server enables eachuser to search for the data registered in the database area on the Web.18. The system according to any of claims 12 to 15 claim 12, whereinsaid budget book management server downloads the data registered in thedatabase area to the user's mobile terminal upon the user's demand. 19.The system according to any of claims 12 to 15 claim 12, wherein one ofsaid plurality of mobile terminals is set as a master and the others asslaves, and said budget book management server sends data registered forthe mobile terminals set as slaves to the master.
 20. The systemaccording to any of claims 12 to 15 claim 12, wherein one of saidplurality of mobile terminals is set as a master and the others asslaves, and said budget book management server downloads data registeredfor the mobile terminals set as slaves to the master.
 21. The systemaccording to claim 15, wherein one of said plurality of mobile terminalsis set as a master and the others as slaves, and said budget bookmanagement server sends data on incomes or expenditures of each user ofthe slave mobile terminals directly to the master.
 22. The systemaccording to claim 15, wherein said mobile terminals are provided withbudget book indexes which facilitate the input by users.